Shoot!
PostPosted:Thu Jul 23, 2009 9:30 pm
This is another manga I followed for some reason. This is about the story of some guy named Tanaka, who is destined to become Japan's ace shooter and he can kick a ball so hard that it just knocks the goalie into the goal even if blocked ala Shaolin Soccer. The whole stories seems to span about 70ish volumes and is divided into 4 arcs (not necessarily in chronological order). At a first glance it's your standard sports manga with quasi-believable tactics and every game ends in a score of 3-2. But as the story moves on you realize that the title should really be renamed as the Legend of Kuba.
Kuba is the leader of the main character's team. He showed up in something like the first 20 volumes and is active in only the last 10 or so of the ones he appeared. After scoring by himself against an entire team to force an overtime, he died from Leukemia (or something). But then later it turned out everybody who plays soccer in the entire world was once beaten by Kuba. Doesn't matter if it's from a village in Japan or a village in Brazil. When you got a new character they'll tell you about how X years ago some kid from Japan beat them. Also, whenever the main characters run into trouble, Kuba always has a letter he's written ahead of time for any possible contingency. This guy is more thorough than Dr. Light and I think he must have saved a few hundred letters before he died just in case it's needed in the future. He is literally a character who becomes more powerful each time a flashback with him is involved, and he is dead!
Also, there's a kind of funny 'scientific explanation' to what's going on. For example one time this guy had this kick where he kicked the ball twice and the power level went up 10 times, and one of the guy said: "This is totally consistent with scientific theories." Well I think first law of thermodynamics would disagree, but it's almost as amusing as reading the physics of double jump from Kenshin.
So far as sports manga go, it's nothing special, but it's not bad to pass time. The story is pretty predictable right down to the score (every game ends in 3-2), though it's less shameless compared to most sports manga. Team Japan only made it to the top 8 in World Cup, and during the high school years, Team Japan barely beat a Team Brazil that fielded only 4 people (remember that guys from Team Brazil are all Super Saiyans in ANY soccer sports manga).
Kuba is the leader of the main character's team. He showed up in something like the first 20 volumes and is active in only the last 10 or so of the ones he appeared. After scoring by himself against an entire team to force an overtime, he died from Leukemia (or something). But then later it turned out everybody who plays soccer in the entire world was once beaten by Kuba. Doesn't matter if it's from a village in Japan or a village in Brazil. When you got a new character they'll tell you about how X years ago some kid from Japan beat them. Also, whenever the main characters run into trouble, Kuba always has a letter he's written ahead of time for any possible contingency. This guy is more thorough than Dr. Light and I think he must have saved a few hundred letters before he died just in case it's needed in the future. He is literally a character who becomes more powerful each time a flashback with him is involved, and he is dead!
Also, there's a kind of funny 'scientific explanation' to what's going on. For example one time this guy had this kick where he kicked the ball twice and the power level went up 10 times, and one of the guy said: "This is totally consistent with scientific theories." Well I think first law of thermodynamics would disagree, but it's almost as amusing as reading the physics of double jump from Kenshin.
So far as sports manga go, it's nothing special, but it's not bad to pass time. The story is pretty predictable right down to the score (every game ends in 3-2), though it's less shameless compared to most sports manga. Team Japan only made it to the top 8 in World Cup, and during the high school years, Team Japan barely beat a Team Brazil that fielded only 4 people (remember that guys from Team Brazil are all Super Saiyans in ANY soccer sports manga).